Do I need to come to your office?
No, though you are welcome to: we have offices in India, the USA, Canada and the UAE. Documents move through a secure portal, and meetings can be in person or by video, arranged around your time zone. Clients in the Gulf, India, Europe and across North America all work with us the same way.
Does it matter which of your offices handles my file?
No. The same named reviewer signs off, the same authorisation is filed with the tax authorities, and the same fixed fee is agreed in writing before any work starts.
How can you quote a fixed fee before you know how complex my file is?
By reading the papers first. You send what already exists, the slips, the prior returns, the foreign assessments, the company documents, and the fee is set from what is actually in front of us and confirmed in writing before any work starts. Nothing is priced from a description over the phone, because descriptions understate cross-border files more often than they overstate them. Where the documents themselves show that part of the position is unknown, for example because years are missing and the record has to be requested from the authority, the quote separates the fixed part from the part that depends on what the record turns out to contain.
Who actually reviews my return before anything is sent to the tax authority?
A named reviewer who is not the person who prepared it, and the same review applies to every engagement regardless of which office holds the file or where the client lives. The reviewer works from the source documents rather than from the preparer's schedules, checks the treaty positions taken and the wording of any disclosure, and signs off in the file. You then receive the complete return as it will be submitted, with a note explaining each figure that is not self-explanatory and each position that depends on a treaty article, so you can question it before rather than after it goes.
Do you need an authorisation to deal with the tax authority on my behalf?
Yes, and it is worth understanding what it does. A representative authorisation lets us see your account, your assessments and your filing history, which is frequently how missing years and unclaimed credits are discovered in the first place. It does not let us commit you to anything, and you can withdraw it at any time. Where a file involves more than one country, each authority has its own authorisation with its own form and its own processing time, so those are filed at the start of the engagement rather than when they are first needed.
What happens if my file turns out to be more complicated than expected?
The work stops and you get a revised written fee before it continues. That is the point of pricing from documents: if something appears that the documents did not show, an account the authority holds that you had forgotten, a foreign entity, a year that was never assessed, then the original scope no longer describes the job and the original figure no longer describes its cost. You decide whether to extend the engagement, narrow it, or take the additional part elsewhere. What does not happen is additional work billed against a number you never agreed to.
How do I send my documents and how do I sign the finished return?
Documents are exchanged through secure cloud software rather than by email attachment, because cross-border files carry account numbers, identification numbers and passport pages that should not sit in an inbox. You upload what you have, in whatever state it is in, and the schedule of what is still missing is kept in the same place so both sides can see it. The finished return is signed electronically, and paper is accepted where a client prefers it or where a particular authority requires a wet signature on a specific form.
Can you take on my file if your office is in a different city from me?
Yes, and the engagement is not a lesser one for it. The same engagement letter is signed, the same authorisation is filed with the authority, the same named reviewer signs off, and the fee is agreed in writing before work begins, exactly as it is for a client who walks in. What changes is the logistics of getting documents to us and the return back to you. The address on the letterhead matters to the authorities and to the post; it has never been what determines the standard of the work or the price of it.
Is the sale of foreign property taxable where I live?
For a resident, yes — worldwide gains are taxable, and the gain is computed in your own currency, so the exchange rate at purchase and at sale changes the number even when the local-currency price did not move. The country where the property sits usually taxes it too, often with a withholding or clearance step before closing, and that tax becomes a credit. A principal residence relief may apply to a home abroad on the same terms as one at home. See principal residence and foreign property.
How would a foreign tax authority know I am resident there?
Mostly from information you or your bank already provided. Account-opening forms ask you to self-certify tax residence, and that certification is reported between authorities under the Common Reporting Standard or, for US accounts, under the FATCA framework. Beyond that: employer and payroll filings, property registries, immigration records and the tax filings of anyone who paid you. The realistic planning assumption is that the data arrives. See FATCA and information reporting.
